You did not think I would do Mexican week without some tacos did you!?

I mean tacos are a MUST.

Especially for a holiday like New Years when some people don’t want to sit down for a fancy meal, but they still want to… you know.. eat some real food.

With tacos you can walk and talk, sit on couch, hang out by the fire or even eat on the go.

Not going to lie, tacos are kind of my dream food. I love them and all the different combos you can do.

Any yes, that is a big old pile of spicy mexican french fries in the photo below.

Ah huh.

I totally just put french fries on a taco.

Best.

Taco.

Topper.

EVER.

Here is the deal with these tacos.

The only reason the idea came into my head was because my cousins who are in town, received a box of homegrown California beef and chicken for Christmas from their Aunt and Uncle who are farmers in Southern California. Yup, they shipped pounds and pounds of beef and chicken right to our door step. All organic too, which is just kind of awesome in my mind.

Anyway, one of the meats was Carne Asada. Yeah, well that had to be made into tacos, right away.

Instead of grilling the meat I threw it in the crockpot to let it cook low and slow. I honestly was not sure how a meat like this would do in the crockpot, but it was so good.

Moist, tender and SO flavorful.

The house smells amazing all day, and come dinner or party time or snack time or just whenever, all you have to do is assemble the tacos.

The meat shreds incredibly well. Mine literally just fell apart. It was a beautiful thing.

And now we have tacos for days.

Yess.

Tacos for days is a very good thing.

The whole family is headed to Ski Cooper today, so coming home to tacos will be perfect. Snowboarding in the cold all day means only one thing. Well actually two, everyone will most likely be heading home cold, tired and starving. Oops I guess that was three.

But really, the cold makes you ravenous. Especially when you know tacos like these are waiting for you.

The rest of the family would say the only thing this meal needs is some margs.

2 large avocados, mashed with a little lime juice and a pinch of salt + pepper

1 lime, cut into wedges

pickled jalapeños

queso fresco or cajita cheese, crumbled

Instructions

Place the steak in 9x13 inch pan. Add the garlic, half of the chopped onion, the smoked paprika, cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper and olive oil. Use your hand to massage the seasoning into the steak for about 3-5 minutes.

Heat a large heavy bottom skillet over high heat and add a tablespoon of olive oil. Sear the meat on both sides. Once the meat has been seared on both sides place it in the bowl of your crockpot. To the crockpot add the remaining, onion, diced jalapeño, orange, limes, cilantro and beer, toss well. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours or on high for 4 hours. Remove the meat and place it on a cutting board. Let rest 15 minutes and then shred the meat with two forks. Keep warm.

About 45 minutes before you are ready to eat make the fries. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Place cut potatoes in a large bowl and drizzle with oil, chipotle chile powder, oregano, smoked paprika, cayenne, salt and pepper. Gently toss with your hands or two spatulas to evenly coat. Spread on a baking sheet in one layer. Bake for 15-20 minutes, then flip and bake for 15-20 minutes more. You want the potatoes to be crispy, but not burnt. If you want perfectly crisp fries I recommend spreading the potatoes on a greased wire rack and baking them as directed above. But this way is a bit of a pain. Keep the potato fries warm until ready to serve.

To make the pico de gallo. Combine the the ingredients in a bowl and mix. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

To assemble, spread the carne asada along the middle of a warmed tortilla. Top with pico de gallo, mashed avocados, a good handful of fries, pickled jalapeños and a heavy dose of cajita or queso fresco. Pick up the sides and EAT.

I like that you use soft taco shells–the hard ones are so difficult to navigate, you take one bite and the thing shatters and throws your precious fillings everywhere. Soft wraps are where it’s at, especially when the filling looks as good as yours! Love it!!!

Hi, I love your recipes so I hope this doesn’t come offf rude. I’m just curious why you always have multiple components to every recipe you create. I think they taste great but I usually have to pick and choose pieces from them and manipulate them to fit my schedule. Its rarely possible for me to come up with them time to make any of these dishes after a 10 hour work day the same way that youdo. I was really excited about this one but you still had french fry & sauce recipes. Thats completely fine but just made me realize very few recipes you do are simple and practical for people people with long jobs and commutes. Maybe you should consider sinpler recipes with fewer ingredients once a week?

Oh my goodness, your recipes always make me feel so hungry, whatever time of day it is (It’s before 9am!) This post makes me miss cold holiday times a bit too (I’m in roasting-hot-in-December Australia!), although we do have our lovely outdoor BBQs here … maybe this would go down pretty well at an Aussie barbie! Thanks for the idea!

I have not been able to find such kind of information throughout the search engines and internet. It’s been fabulously informative to read your blog and i am going to suggest it to another fellow as well.

Truly impressive and nice information,it is good material to read this post increases my knowledge.That is really fantastic and exciting to read your dwI hope you never stop! This is one of the best blogs Ive ever read. Youve got some mad skill here, man. I just hope that you dont lose your style because youre definitely one of the coolest bloggers out there. Please keep it up because the internet needs someone like you spreading the word…..Thank you…

I never get why so many blogs about food, have so many pictures and so little text. Your blog is one of them.
13 pics, whereas at least 7 are the same, just with the camera angle or zoom changed.
I keep wondering if these blogs are food or photo blogs … ?
Is it wannabe professional photographers that just happen to like cooking or is it devoted chefs that just like to photograph to process?

This is not meant to offend you or anybody else, because it’s your blog and you can do whatever you want and if you want to be the photographer – go ahead. The pics looks stunning and the dish looks great.
It’s just that I tend to scroll fast down every time a pic don’t bring any new to the story and I try to find the important text bits, and it somehow annoys me, when there are many redundant pics and text bits.

Thanks for this amazing recipe! Made it a few days ago when we had some friends coming over for dinner. We all loved the recipe!!! We grilled our meat, because we didn’t had time to put it in the crockpot, we used parsley instead of cilantro, because my hubby can’t stand the taste of cilantro, and made the fries with sweet potatoes. Definitely a recipe we and or our friends are going to make again

Omygosh your tacos looks so delicious. My daughter who’s turning 17 wants carne asada tacos for her birthday. So pinterest it was to see how to make them and yours stood out from others plus the magic word was crockpot which is what I use alot. So thank you!

The recipe looks good! However, I have to say that carne asada is NEVER EVER prepared in a crock pot. Carne asada is always either grilled or barbecued. In Mexico, the type of beef used in this recipe is known as “carne deshebrada”. It’s cooked slowly and then shredded.

I have to agree with Lily! This recipe doesn’t produce “carne asada”. “Asada” means “grilled” or “roasted,” which a crockpot can’t produce. Haha! But most united-statesians wouldn’t know that, and most “Mexican” food places in the U.S. are fake Mexican, so if it tastes good, who cares?!

I was hoping that you could help me with something please: if I wanted to use pork instead of beef, how long should I cook it in the slow cooker? I would use the same cut as a pulled pork (which I believe is a pork butt(sp?)). Thanks!

Hey Kyle, I would cook the pork about 6-8 hours on low. This will depend on how many pounds your pork is though. Any 3-4 pound pork butt should cook for 6-8 hours on low. Hope you love this and let me know if you have any other questions.

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I am Tieghan and this space is where I write about the food I make and the chaos that comes with it. Cooking is the way my creative side comes out. You will find a mix of healthy recipes, cozy comfort food and sometimes over the top foods + indulgent desserts. I grew up with a chocolate freak for a mom, so chocolate is obviously a must around here.